The Pakistani government may have sincerely believed it could contain the Taliban by giving the extremist group a district to rule, but Pakistani Christians understand the Taliban's ultimate agenda. Taliban militants in Karachi's Taiser Town—hundreds of miles from the Taliban's newly obtained Swat Valley—chalked the homes and churches of local Christians with threats and slogans demanding that they pay the jizra, an Islamic tax for the protection of non-converts. When the Christian community washed the slogans from the buildings, dozens of armed militants arrived and shot three people execution style on April 22, including 11-year-old Irfan Masih, who died a few hours later.
Pakistan's Taliban—once limited in power to the semiautonomous tribal belts—has made daunting advances in recent months, emboldened by the government's abdication of the Swat district. The idyllic valley is now under Shariah law, and the Taliban has used its new base to infiltrate the districts of Lower Dir and Buner—just 60 miles from Islamabad. These advances, coupled with new signs of Taliban infiltration in the strategic southern port city of Karachi, have raised global alarm over the prospect of a nuclear-armed Pakistan falling into the hands of the Taliban, and analysts question the country's capability and will to fight the growing threat within its borders.
(Courtesy to WorldMag)
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